We're Azza and Aurora, and we're 13-year-old best friends who just got some amazing news!!! We've been invited by Fil Nation Select to represent our Filipino culture competing at an elite international basketball event, the Manila Live Tournament in the Philippines March 24-29!!
Whoa.
We've been friends for half our lives now. We first met doing multicultural youth and Filipino community work. Sports has been a shared passion, and both of us sharing Black and Filipino cultures means the world to us . We both really found a passion for basketball, separate from each other, and now it’s bringing us together getting to play in Manila, where basketball is such a huge part of the culture and where people will understand our drive, is going to be a dream come true.
It’s just wild that the first time we are going to play together on an official team will be internationally!!
Our parents have taught us if we can dream it, we can do it. That's why we're fundraising for our tournament fees, flights, lodging, and meals. We want to learn what it means to invest in ourselves and to understand that our community believes in us as much as we believe in this opportunity. This experience is teaching us responsibility, gratitude, and the power of people coming together to support something meaningful. This is an exercise of us putting ourselves out there and asking for support because we believe in our ability.
Whether it's $5 or $500 or sharing our story we are eternally grateful to belong to this tribe. Like really really. Thank you for your contribution and being part of living our dream.
Thank you! Maraming salamat po!
Aurora & Azza
